


Baby

by Applesandbannas747



Category: Fence (Comics)
Genre: Daddy Issues, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-12
Updated: 2019-08-15
Packaged: 2020-08-20 02:16:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 15,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20220133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Applesandbannas747/pseuds/Applesandbannas747
Summary: Kings Row believes in promoting healthy family relationships and has a compulsory course to help teach students how to cultivate them. Nick's unconvinced the program is at all effective, given how good his own father was at 'cultivating healthy family relationships' but there's a part of him that wants to prove he's different from his dad. With Seiji for a partner, though, that's going to be tough. Because Seiji isn't good at cultivatinganytype of relationship.





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who tried (and FAILED) to write a oneshot again! This got a bit long so whoops you don't get it all today, despite it being written specifically for Day One of Fence Crack Week 2019 (Daddy Issues)

Nick was getting real tired of everyone’s bullshit. At first, he’d passed it off as nothing. A bad zit on his face, maybe. Or a ridiculous rumor, though why anyone would gossip about him, he didn’t know. But the thing was, it didn’t stop. And it wasn’t just directed at him either. There was something more to all the clandestine glances and giggles than he could piece together.

When Nick asked Bobby about it, he only shook his head, clasping hands over his mouth to keep from either laughing or spilling before he ran away. When Nick asked Harvard about it, he only gave Nick a knowing look and told him, not reassuringly at all, _you’ll see._ When he asked Eugene about it, his eyes had slid over to Seiji, who was warming up for practice, a huge and also not reassuring grin growing on his face as he did. Then he’d laughed, not even polite enough to _try _and hide it from Nick.

Nick had gone three days with all those knowing, amused, excited gazes and all that laughing and now he was fed up. All the guys were giving Seiji a similar treatment—and _oh boy_ was that worrying—but Seiji was good at tuning this stuff out. Nick knew all the nasty rumors about him, knew all the bizarre ones, and all the ones that made him out to be a god. Kings Row was a breeding ground for that shit. But Seiji never acknowledged any of it. He’d gotten used to it, probably. But Nick wasn’t used to it. So whatever this was, he was dealing with it worse.

“Move it, Zero.” Speak of the devil. And Seiji was; the devil. He could easily have gone around Nick, there was plenty of room. But now, just for that, Nick moved to block the entire doorway into the locker room.

“Make me,” he challenged.

“Do you ever get bored of being so predictably contrary?”

“If it’s so predictable, why’d you tell me to move? Dumbass.”

“_What_ did you just call me?”

“Dumbass. It’s my cute new nickname for you, to match yours for me.”

“You’re not half as funny as you think you are.” Seiji had this way of looking bored and angry at the same time.

“You’re right,” Nick nodded solemnly. “I’m _at least_ twice as funny as I think I am. But I’m also very modest.”

“Would you like to know what else you are?”

“Tell me, I love listening to you speak.”

“You’re obnoxious, loud, messy, and _in my way.”_

“Oh no, you poor baby, how does it feel to be inconvenienced for the first time in your life?” Nick mocked, pulling on a baby voice.

“Better than it feels to be an inconvenience to everyone all the time.” That was uncalled for and Nick’s cheeks went hot.

“Fuck you, I’ll show you who’s an _inconvenience,”_ Nick growled, lurching forward to attack only to find himself hauled backward. Nick twisted around to see Harvard, face set in stern disappointment. “It’s all his fault,” Nick said uselessly.

“You guys better start getting along,” Eugene said, poking out cheerfully from behind Harvard. “You know, for the baby’s sake.”

“The what?” Nick asked, completely thrown by this comment.

“Get ready to fence,” Harvard heaved Nick into the locker room and thoroughly out of Seiji’s way. “I don’t want any more fights, understood? It wastes my time and everybody else’s. So get it together.”

“Yes, Captain,” Nick said and heard Seiji echo the sentiment.

* * *

Despite what Nick and Seiji had promised to Harvard, it wasn’t even a full day before they were back to bickering. They’d had a disagreement in class over the roles they’d been assigned to read in English and they brought it with them to the lunch table. It was mandated once the team had been announced that they all sit together, though Tanner and Kally still ate with them too.

“It’s all your fault,” Nick was telling Seiji again.

“_My_ fault? How? You’re the one at fault,” Seiji protested as he sat down next to Kally. Nick followed right after. “I was well within my rights to keep my part despite your whining.”

“But you’d be a terrible Mercutio! I’m perfect for the role and you had no right keeping it from me.”

“It’s an in-class reading of _Romeo and Juliet,_ not a stage production! It doesn’t matter what part you get.”

“Then why couldn’t you have traded me for Benvolio?”

“Because Mercutio was my assigned part,” Seiji said, much like he’d said ten minutes before when they were still in class: slow and enunciated, like maybe Nick was just too stupid to understand this thing, which was actually quite simple.

“Aw, was wittle baby scawed to get in twouble—,”

“As I remember it, we both got in trouble when you started throwing a fit. Your immaturity got me punished.”

“No, your stubbornness got _me_ punished.”

“Guys,” Kally broke in, voice placating. “Inside voices, please.”

“I thought I told you to stop fighting,” Harvard added.

“We know your crime,” Eugene said, “so tell us, what is your time?”

Nick and Seiji exchanged loathing glares and let the question hang until Nick finally said, “We both got assigned new roles.”

“That’s not so bad,” Kally smiled hopefully.

“We were given the least sought after parts in the entire play as punishment for questioning Ms. Kingsley’s casting,” Seiji expanded on Nick’s explanation, scowling.

“You can’t mean…?” Kally asked. Nick and Seiji’s angry silence answered that well enough. “But she always assigns new students to be Romeo and Juliet each class. Everyone has to read for the titular characters, it’s tradition.”

“We broke it,” Nick said. “I think it was me calling Seiji a stuck up cunt that put her over the edge—,”

“See?” Seiji jumped in. “You admit that it was your fault.” _Shit._

“Did not! I said I pushed her over the edge, but _you_ were the one being a stuck up cunt,” Nick reasoned but Seiji wasn’t buying it.

“And now we get to read for star-crossed lovers. If you’d just sat down, shut up, and dealt with being Benvolio, I wouldn’t have to learn so many lines. Do you have any idea how many soliloquies Juliet has?”

“Yeah, Seiji, it’s always been my dream to play star-crossed lovers with you,” Nick deadpanned. “And why the fuck would you have to _learn_ anything? Like you said, we’re only reading parts out loud in class.”

“If you think I’m going to stumble over my lines in front of the whole class, you’re mistaken.”

“And you’re insane.”

“Cut it out,” Harvard intervened before they lost track of their ‘inside voices’ again. “It’s not that big of a deal. So you’ll have to read some more lines. Make sure to bring water and you’ll be fine.”

“Go easy on our freshmen, Harvard,” Aiden said. Both Seiji and Nick cut eyes to him. Why was Aiden on their side? Short answer, he wasn’t. The real question was _what the hell is he up to?_ “After all, can you blame them? Poor things are so stressed with the baby on the way.”

“Pardon me?” Seiji asked.

“Okay, what the fuck is going on?” Nick asked, but no one was even listening to him. They were all too busy laughing, even _Harvard._ Orange juice exploded from Tanner’s nose, he was laughing so hard. “That’s the _second_ baby joke. I don’t understand—,”

“Well,” Tanner said, orange juice more or less out of his system. “When a mommy and a daddy love each other very much—,”

“Oh, haha,” Nick snapped. “Fuck you.”

“So you _do_ know about the birds and the bees,” Aiden jumped in. “I was starting to worry the baby might not be yours.”

“It’s not! Wait, fuck. _What_ baby?” But it was useless. The table was full of giggling and nothing more could be gotten out of anyone there. Nick looked over at Seiji and saw that he was just as confused as Nick was.

* * *

“Do you think it might be a rumor about us?” Nick asked Seiji after another long practice enduring giggles and weird jokes about babies that made no sense.

“As they’re all making cryptic references to something neither of us understands and they can’t stop staring at us, I’d be inclined to say yes.” So he _did_ notice it, he was just good at ignoring it. “But I’ve no idea what the rumor could possibly be.”

“I think it might be about…” god, was he going to say this out loud? “Y’know, that we’re…uh…”

“What?” Seiji asked impatiently. So Nick shrugged and demonstrated with some crude hand gestures. Seiji stared at his hands in distaste, then moved his eyes up to stare at _Nick_ with nothing short of disgust.

“It’s the only thing I can come up with,” Nick said, flushing because of Seiji’s nasty stare. Nick didn’t think he was _that_ bad. “I’m not happier about this than you are. But the weird baby jokes? I don’t get it. Why go right to mpreg?”

“Mpreg?”

“You know what, don’t worry about it. Do you think they’ll ever tell us?”

“Doubtful. People don’t like to say it to your face when they can say it behind your back. But rumors have a way of making it to you. Eventually. We’ll just have to wait. And hope they all lose interest in us.”

“Yeah, I guess.” But Nick’s attention wasn’t with the conversation anymore. It had wandered off to edit his previous thoughts on Seiji. Because it now seemed to Nick that Seiji wasn’t so unaffected and unbothered by the rumors about him after all.

* * *

“Alright, listen up,” Ms. Kingsley called everyone to attention just after the tardy bell during Thursday’s class. Nick fully expected her to tell them to pull out their books and start in on the Shakespeare stuff. But that was not at all what she said. “Every freshmen class is getting the same spiel during your second-period classes today. So you get to hear it from me.” Murmurs broke out around the room and Nick glanced at some of his classmates. They all looked as confused as he was, some even looked worried. “Starting on Monday, your class of two thousand and twenty-two will be on a morning assembly schedule. That whole week, you will be attending special classes in the morning, which means our time together Monday, Wednesday, and Friday will be shorter than usual. I start _Romeo and Juliet_ during this time each year on purpose so that we can spend the entire shortened period reading.”

“What _special classes_ are we going to?” One of the other guys asked.

“Healthy relationship workshops and parenting classes,” Ms. Kingsley answered. Nick was sure she’d crack a smile and reveal she’d been kidding. “From this Monday to next Monday, you will all be given a baby and taught how to care for it.”

“A baby?” Nick accidentally said it real loud. But he couldn’t help it. This had to be it! The reason for all the baby jokes and snickering.

“Not a real baby,” Ms. Kingsley finally cracked that smile but it was clear this wasn’t a joke. “Kings Row has had an intensive one-week family-life course for our freshmen for many years and a huge part of that is raising a fake baby. It’s tradition.” She was smiling way too big. “We’ve used regular baby dolls in the past, but in the last couple of years, we invested in some hyperrealistic ones. They’re still just dolls but they simulate the experience of a real baby. You’ll have to take care of it for a week.”

“Sounds lame,” a boy named Tim said from behind Nick. “I’m not doing it.”

“It’s required. And you will be graded. We let you pick what class you’d like the assignment to be added to, which can either boost or drag down your grade in that class as a result. And a number of you could do with a boost in _my_ class, so consider that, Timothy, before you ditch the classes and ignore your baby. It tracks how often it cries, how long before you interact with it to calm it down, how often you change its diaper, if you feed it, if you shake it, and so on. You’ll learn how to care for it on Monday when you and your partner are assigned a baby.”

“Partner?” Nick asked but he had a sinking suspicion that he knew all about that already. “Please say we get to pick our partner, Kingsley.”

“I’m afraid not, Nicholas,” she told him, wicked smile back in place. “Since you will be caring for the baby for seven days and seven nights, of course it only makes sense that you’d co-parent with your roommate.”

So he had a baby on the way with Seiji Katayama and it was due to arrive Monday. Great. Fan-fucking-tastic.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *old granny voice* back in my day there was a ‘we got paired in class to raise a fake baby’ fanfiction in every fandom and I never grew out of it so here we are


	2. Chapter 2

“Rumors about us doing it would have been so much better than this,” Nick mumbled as he and Seiji were handed a baby.

“As distasteful as that thought is, I have to agree,” Seiji said, eyeing the yellow-clad baby doll in Nick's arms like he thought it might explode.

They, and the rest of the grumbling freshman class, filed into the lecture hall for the orientation on how to use—take care of?—the dolls. And then their first parenting class. And, to make the day even more fun, he and Seiji got to read for Romeo and frickin’ Juliet. With a baby.

“I hate this,” Nick groaned. Seiji shushed him as Principal Eisler took the stage and went into her speech about the importance of parenting and healthy relationships and the like. This program had been around for almost fifty years and Nick couldn't help but think they were complete crap. They sure hadn't taught Robert Coste much. And, come to think of it, the bag of flour or whatever they'd used as fake babies back in the day had gotten more fatherly affection from his dad than Nick ever would. _That_ was a fun thought. It propelled him to pay attention, though. Out of spite, in part, as well as in an effort to escape thoughts of Robert.

“You take the baby,” Seiji said when they were released to their first period classes. Nick might have protested but Seiji was already gone. Dick. Nick would shove the baby on him for third period tomorrow as revenge. All their other classes, they shared.

The baby was fine enough, Nick supposed. Some of the other dolls started crying in the middle class but Nick’s baby behaves admirably. And it didn't cry in the hall on the way to lunch either. _Because I've got the good sense not to hold it like a toy monkey_, he thought, watching other babies dangling precariously by the arm or stuffed haphazardly into bags.

“Congratulations on the newest addition to your family,” Aiden said when Nick sat down. Seiji was already there and Nick wouldn't have sat next to him if not for the baby, which he shoved into Seiji's unwilling arms right away.

“Thanks,” Nick said brightly. “Thank you all for not warning us about this hell assignment.”

“Hey, anytime bro,” Eugene shot him some finger guns.

“I love being unhelpful,” Tanner said with a wink.

“You're welcome,” Harvard said very seriously.

“Where's Bobby?” Nick asked, looking around for his best friend. He could use some sympathy and Bobby seemed the most likely to give it.

“He had home economics,” a deep voice replied. Dante. So Bobby would be joining them, then. He was just running late. “He convinced Ms. Mack to let him bake a cake during class.”

“Okay,” Nick wasn't sure why that was relevant information until Bobby appeared, walking towards them with a cake held carefully in his hands. Nick had known Bobby would pull through for him. A cake would make next period way less terrible.

“Sorry I'm late! Nick, Seiji, I baked you a cake!”

“You're the best,” Nick exclaimed but then he saw the fancy script on the top of the cake, lovingly iced with flowers and frills: IT’S A GIRL. The table fell into appreciative laughter. Nick frowned. “How do you know it's a girl?”

“_That's _what you're worried about?” Seiji asked.

“It's a legitimate question!”

“All the babies are girls by default,” Bobby explained, sliding in next to Dante and pulling a knife from his bag that Nick thought was a bit excessive in relation to the cake it was meant to cut. “Makes diaper changing less awkward. Have you named her yet?”

“It,” Seiji corrected, gingerly setting the doll on the table so that he could eat unencumbered.

“We haven't gotten around to it,” Nick said, smile forming on his lips. If this was going to annoy Seiji, he could play along too.

“We're not naming it,” Seiji said flatly.

“Part of parenting is forming a bond with your child,” Aiden said, reciting from the lesson he must have sat through three years ago. “Harvard and I named our baby Theodora.”

“Dante, remember our little Rosie?” Bobby asked and Dante nodded, looking as though he had fond memories of his and Bobby’s ‘Rosie.’

“What did you name yours, Kally?” Nick wanted to piss Seiji off with the question but he was also curious.

“I didn't name our doll,” Kally sighed and Seiji looked briefly triumphant.

“_I_ named her Kally Jr., obviously,” Tanner said before Seiji could get too excited about finding a kindred spirit.

“You guys all had stupid names,” Eugene declared. “Doomsday Destructor Firebomb Laser-Eyes could have taken any of your babies in a fight.”

Nick liked the sound of that and gave Eugene a high-five for his excellent naming skills. Seiji looked like he thought he was surrounded by idiots. But what else was new?

* * *

“What are we supposed to do with her during practice, do you think?” Nick asked Seiji as they entered the gym together that afternoon.

“Do you want to hire a babysitter?” Seiji asked snidely.

“You know what, I’m sure Bobby would take her.” Nick fished out his phone. “Let me see if he’s busy.”

“You can’t be serious.”

“Why not?”

“It’s a toy, Nicholas. Just put it against the wall or something.”

“But what if she starts crying again? Coach would be pissed at the noise _or_ the interruption while we went and dealt with it.”

Seiji looked at the baby that Nick had been stuck carrying practically all day and his face clearly conveyed what he thought of it. Seiji was even less impressed with this course than Nick was and _he_ didn’t even have a dad that’d probably flunked out of it.

“You deal with it.”

Nick called Bobby and managed to hand the baby off to him before Coach called him in for the debrief.

“I see you’re taking to parenthood more readily than your partner,” Coach Williams commented, causing Nick to groan and Seiji to scowl and the other three to laugh.

“You too?” Nick asked. “C’mon Coach, have some mercy.”

“No.”

Nick didn’t know what he’d expected, honestly. All the teachers seemed as amused by this as the older students were, if a little exasperated at the drain on class time. Coach Williams, though, seemed to find it even funnier than the other teachers.

Practice was brutal. Nothing but drills and footwork today which meant Nick left the gym feeling completely unsatisfied; he hadn’t gotten to actually fence anyone all day. And the return of the baby to him—Bobby didn’t dare try and pass the doll to Seiji—was the cherry on top. _Taking to parenting, my ass,_ he thought.

* * *

Nick woke with the unpleasant jarring sensation that came when something was wrong. His addled and tired mind took a moment to click it all into place. The baby was crying. Groaning, Nick dragged himself out of bed to pick up the screaming doll from where she was situated on the desk. He took off and put back on the diaper so the doll would count it as a change, just like they’d been taught that morning.

“This shouldn’t be allowed,” Seiji’s scowl was audible. He’d made no effort to fix the baby, though he’d most likely woken up first. Nick was a deep sleeper but, apparently, a better fake dad than Seiji. “It’s disturbing our sleep.”

“That’s what babies do,” Nick yawned as he rocked the baby.

“It’s designed specifically to disrupt our lives and is bound to have a negative impact on the rest of our schooling. It’s wrong.”

“It’s a week. A sucky week but not a big deal.” All their classes were light on the workload to accommodate for this weird project. “Do you wanna grab her bottle from my bag?”

“No.”

“Fine, we can listen to her scream all night.”

Seiji got out of bed and actually _stomped_ his way over to Nick’s bag, which he rummaged through until finding the toy bottle. He shoved it at Nick and went right back to bed. Nick heard him tossing around and thought he was being a bit dramatic. The baby was settling down. She’d just been hungry.

“There we go,” Nick said quietly to the doll, putting her gently back on the desk. “That’s right, good baby.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys guess what! The lovely [Argoart](https://argoart.tumblr.com/) drew an amazingly accurate picture of Eugene and his Doomsday Destructor Firebomb Laser-Eyes!! [Go check it out](https://argoart.tumblr.com/post/187347711588/i-read-applesandbannas747-s-fic-and-could-not/) it's seriously fantastic 💜 I can't get over how much I love it


	3. Chapter 3

“The trick is to change her, then feed and rock her every time she gets fussy,” Nick was explaining, lingering just outside the door to Seiji’s third-period class. “That way, you hit all her needs no matter what. But we got a quiet one so you should be fine.”

Seiji’s expression was that of someone seriously concerned about his sanity. Nick flushed. “Why do you care so much?” Seiji asked. Nick didn’t care _that_ much. Not really. It just didn’t sit right to not do his best at this, weird and embarrassing as it was. He didn’t want to explain that to Seiji, though.

“It’s the assignment to take good care of her—,”

“It.”

“Whatever. Aren’t you the one who cares so much about his precious four-point-oh GPA?”

“What gives you that idea?”

“Am I wrong?”

Seiji frowned and finally took the baby Nick was holding out to him. No, Nick wasn’t wrong about Seiji. Seiji was just pissed that he was so—what was the word? Ah yes, _predictable._

“I’m not carrying that,” Seiji said when Nick held out the cheery pink and green sweet-pea pattered diaper bag.

“Yeah, you are,” Nick told him, looping the strap over his neck. “Bobby made it for us and it’s got all the baby’s shit in it. Try not to stab her or something if she cries, okay?”

“If you’re so worried,” Seiji grouched, readjusting the diaper bag with disdain, “why don’t you take it to your class?”

“Co-parenting means we both take care of the kid.” It was impossible not to hear the bitter undercurrent to his words. Even Seiji noticed it, giving him a long stare that made him squirm. “Just take her, okay? For your GPA.”

“I’m not Tim, I won’t shake her for the fun of it,” Seiji said finally, still displeased but with no way out of it.

“Alright,” Nick grinned and patted the doll’s bald head. “Be good, Baby.”

* * *

“How’d she do?” Nick asked when Seiji appeared at the desk next to his, a rare occurrence no doubt brought on by the desire to pass the baby off to Nick. He took the doll without complaint.

“It didn’t make any noise. Rupert’s doll screamed the entire class, Mr. Bernard sent him out to the hall.”

“Wow, serves Rupert right, though. Did you see him at lunch? He was playing catch with her as the ball.”

“He’s completely hopeless at the whole thing,” Seiji agreed. Which was rich coming from _him_, Nick thought. He looked down at their baby—_fake_ baby and decided to give her a bottle since Seiji probably hadn’t and she was programmed to get hungry every couple hours like actual babies did. In fact, she was a lot like an actual baby. Which made it hard for Nick to treat her as poorly as some of the other boys treated theirs.

“Like I said, we got lucky. Baby’s a champ, the biggest thing that sets her off is being put down. She must take after you, being quiet isn’t one of my strong suits.” Nick was too busy finding the bottle to register the look of absolute offense on Seiji’s face at first but when he looked up and saw it? He had to laugh. “Dude, you’d think I’d just called you a godless whore and punched you in the stomach, the way you’re looking at me!”

“_It_ is a _toy_, Nicholas. It doesn’t take after me at all because it’s not real and I’m not its father.”

“Hey, not so loud, Baby will hear and feel sad,” Nick said, cackling at the way this enraged Seiji.

“_Baby_ isn’t—,” Seiji froze, realizing he’d called their doll by the same name Nick had. He harrumphed and didn’t acknowledge Nick or Baby for the entire class.

Nick passed Baby off to Bobby again during practice and the finger he gave Eugene for calling him a good dad didn’t even have that much malice behind it. There were way worse things to be accused of than that, after all. Seiji gave him a judgmental look for it though and got flipped off with feeling for it.

Fencing was better today, at least. There was actual _fencing_ involved, against another person and everything. Nick was in a pretty good mood by the time he and Seiji were heading back to the dorms.

“Wait a sec,” Nick said, stopping at Bobby’s door, “I’ve got to grab Baby.”

“You don’t need me for that,” Seiji said and tried to continue walking. Nick grabbed his arm, stopping him.

“Nope, you’ve gotta have an active role in raising her, them’s the rules.” He rapped his knuckles on the door and heard Bobby’s answer of _just a moment!_

“Why? You’re doing fine by yourself, you don’t need me.”

“You’re the one who cares about the grade,” Nick reminded him. “It’s a group project.”

“It’s a worthless project distracting us from the rest of our education,” Seiji snapped. “Keeping us up at night, shortening our classes, distracting us _during_ classes—even getting us potentially _kicked out_ of our classes. It’s nothing but a nuisance and it should be discontinued.”

“Stop bitching and pull your weight. Or are you gonna play the absentee father card this whole week? Prove to everyone that you’re too goddamned emotionally stunted to have kids?”

“I’m not the one with something to prove.”

“And what’s that supposed to mean?”

“Don’t think I haven’t noticed what this is really about,” Seiji sneered. “Just because you’ve got daddy issues doesn’t mean you can project them onto me over a _baby doll._ Congratulations on being such a stellar fake dad, but I’ve got better things to do than role-play to make you feel better about your unfulfilling childhood.” Seiji wrenched his arm from Nick’s grasp and stormed away before Nick had any chance to even think how to respond to that. And when an idea finally struck, it was a good thing Seiji had left or he’d have a fist in his gut right now.

“So, um, do you want your baby or is now a bad time…?” Bobby asked timidly. Nick turned and found him in standing awkwardly half out of his room. Actually, there were a couple of cracked open doors and curious faces. Nick’s friends all gave him sympathetic or guilty looks before disappearing back into their rooms.

* * *

Nick was already pissed when Baby woke him with her crying. He’d known she would; talking with the other guys, the babies seemed to be programmed to cry at least once between midnight and six in the morning to provide an _authentic experience_. Kally had told them during lunch about his and Tanner’s baby. Apparently, KJ had woken up at least three time every night. Nick shuddered at the thought. Once was more than enough. Especially with a mood as bad as his was right now.

Clomping over to the desk as loudly as possible, Nick snatched up the dumb doll a little harsher than necessary and got a particularly shrill shriek in return. He winced, wondering if that’d count as a shake—but, no, he’d only picked her up. The auditory response might have been random. Anyway, it didn’t matter. This wasn’t a real baby. He wasn’t in any danger of accidentally killing it because he was mad. Still, he felt guilty as he went about trying to soothe her.

Nick hadn’t spoken a word to Seiji all night, not that it was particularly uncommon to go an evening without speaking. They weren’t close. But the quality of silence had been different than usual. Angry and mean and waiting to explode, getting worse and worse until it had been suffocating as Nick finally went to bed. But he didn’t want to explode. Didn’t want to talk about his so-called _daddy issues_ with Seiji in any way at all, even to tell Seiji off or to deny it.

It was all the worse because he couldn’t honestly deny it anyway. There was some truth to it. Nick knew he had…_issues_ surrounding the notable absence of a father in his life. That in and of itself wouldn’t be so bad if his dad’s success and the family he actually wanted—actually loved—weren’t shoved in Nick’s face all the time. It made him angry to see Jesse Coste, who’d gotten everything Nick hadn’t. Fencing lessons since he was old enough to hold an épée, a father who was there and not only raised him but coached him too, _everything_. It made Nick want to prove something, just like Seiji had said. He didn’t want to be like Robert. Not even to a stupid toy.

Baby finally calmed and Nick set down her bottle, rocking her for a while to make sure she was really asleep. Very carefully, Nick nestled her into the little towel nest he’d made for her on the desk but the moment he did, she went off again.

“Will you make it shut up?” Seiji’s personality was not improved by sleep deprivation.

“You want to try?” Nick snapped, in no mood to deal with Seiji’s whining. Then, when Baby seemed to cry even harder—or was that his imagination?—Nick scooped her up and made quiet shushing noises. Seiji snorted in an unkind way and Nick’s cheeks burned, shutting up immediately after that. 

When Nick saw movement from the corner of his eye, he thought Seiji was actually coming to help. His surprise was short-lived, dying as Seiji pulled out his computer and typed furiously on it.

“What’re you doing?” Nick asked. Now was not the time for last-minute homework. Unless that homework involved taking care of Baby.

“Looking up hacks to reprogram the doll or trick its sensors. What’s the—oh, never mind, I found something.”

“_You’re_ cheating? You, Seiji Katayama, are _cheating?” _Nick asked, watching Seiji’s face, lit up eerily by his computer screen.

“Yes.”

“Okay, just wanted to make sure.”

“But it’s hardly cheating—,”

“Uh, it’s pretty blatantly cheating to _hack_ the baby.”

“It’s justified,” Seiji protested peevishly. “It’s taking time away from my actual classes and keeping me up at night. I’ve got other, more important things to do than mess around with a doll.”

“To be fair, you’re not doing much of anything with Baby,” Nick pointed out. Seiji didn’t answer. _Whatever._ Nick continued rocking Baby gently. He thought there must be a heat or motion sensor in her because she really did _not_ like to be set down. He was scared to try putting her back in her bed. “Finding anything?” He asked, curious.

“No,” Seiji’s face was set in a scowl. “All I can find are detailed instructions for taking care of the baby.”

“Yeah?” Nick asked, smirking. “Any useful tips or tricks?”

“It’s suggested that when the baby cries you change it, feed it, and rock it every time,” Seiji looked displeased as he said it and Nick laughed.

“I fucking told you, didn’t I? I’m a genius.” Really, he’d just played _The Sims_ before. But still. He was right and Seiji had to admit it. “Alright, dumbass, pray for me. I’m gonna put Baby down.”

“Call me that again and—,”

“Shh! Baby’s sleeping.” Nick practically held his breath as he maneuvered Baby into her towels. She didn’t go off right away so he slowly withdrew, literally tip-toeing back to his own bed.

“Thank god,” Seiji whispered when she didn’t wake up again.

“Don’t thank god,” Nick grinned, pulling up his blankets. “Thank me.”

“Maybe it was my praying that got her to stay down.”

“Was that a joke? I think that was a joke. And it was almost sort of funny.”

“Shut up and go to bed.”


	4. Chapter 4

Baby was being unusually fussy today. Nick thought she must be punishing him for the not-actually-shake he’d given her last night but Seiji had called him stupid when he’d expressed his concern. _She’s—it’s—a doll, Zero. Dolls don’t have feelings. _But she was punishing him, even so. He took to pacing during second period, to a raised eyebrow from Ms. Kingsley, so he could bounce the baby on his hip, his free hand holding open the play in front of him. He found that the pacing actually helped him to speak all the strange words in a more natural way.

He’d discovered the hard way on Monday why Seiji’s method of half-learning lines beforehand was a good one. He’d stumbled the entire time and his face had flamed red hot because of it. This was better, he got into a rhythm. Maybe he’d use Baby as an excuse to do the same thing next class. And maybe next week he’d give no excuse because weird looks over walking circles in the back of the room were way better than groans over his fifth attempt at the same line.

Seiji made an absolutely perfect Juliet, the fucker. He hadn’t tripped over so much as a single word so far and he put more emotion into his lines than Nick had ever heard from him when he was actually speaking. And it was strange to be throwing back and forth flirtations with Seiji when he actually sounded like he was a human being with emotions that were as soft and pleasant as Juliet’s. Rather than the contempt and anger Nick usually got out of him.

The bell rang and jarred Nick so thoroughly he almost flung Baby across the room on accident.

“Great reading today, you all,” Ms. Kingsley called as everyone started standing up and collecting bags. “We’ll continue next class, now get out of here. Seriously, I want to go get a burrito during lunch, hurry it up.”

Nick scrambled to put away his shit but found that Seiji had already gathered up the diaper bag. That was almost as disorienting as the bell ringing in the middle of their scene, which Nick had gotten embarrassingly absorbed in. Seiji offered the little pink bag to him and Nick took it slowly, expecting it to be some kind of trick.

“Romeo and Juliet, you’re wasting my burrito time,” Kingsley sing-songed. “Go do that somewhere else.”

What, exactly, Kingsley thought they were doing, Nick didn’t ask. He, like Seiji, just made for the door. Walking down the hall and all the way to their lunch table, Nick’s eyes kept slipping to Seiji.

Chatter died down as they took their seats and the entire table regarded them wearily and, at the same time, expectantly. It wasn’t until then that their fight in the hall returned to Nick and set him back into a sour mood with Seiji. He’d kind of forgotten about that after their late night together and the reading in English but he was still mad about it.

“I’m so proud of you two,” Aiden said, sickeningly sweet. “Did you already kiss and make up?”

“Aiden,” Harvard said with an elbow to his side everyone could see. “But I’m impressed at your maturity,” he added, looking Seiji and Nick over as if expecting to see evidence of another physical altercation.

“We thought you guys’d be at each other’s throats.” Tanner sounded disappointed that they weren’t. “Especially since you had English today.”

“Yeah,” Eugene said with a snigger, “have you lovebirds gotten to read together yet?”

“I don’t see what’s so funny,” Seiji said, unimpressed with Eugene’s snickering. “Yes, we read together today but it’s not as if we’re _acting_ the play out. We don’t have to kiss.”

Kissing Seiji, there was an idea that Nick hadn’t needed in his mind. It was funnier, though, if he imagined himself in one of those silly hats with the feather in it and Seiji in a dress—actually, that was _so_ funny that he laughed before catching himself. Seiji rolled his eyes.

“Grow up,” he said, obviously convinced Nick was laughing because he’d referenced a kiss in the first place. Nick decided to keep the dress and feathered hat stuff to himself. Seiji wouldn’t find it nearly as funny as he did. He’d probably demand that Nick imagine him in regular clothes even though he couldn’t see it. And imaging kissing Seiji when he was in his usual posh style or the Kings Row uniform was decidedly less hilarious.

* * *

Thursday morning was miserable. Baby had continued being fussy late into the night and Nick had ended up asleep with her on his chest—a dangerous game considering how much he tossed in his sleep. He hadn’t meant to doze off like that, he’d just sat down to rock her and it was all downhill from there. Luckily, he’d woken with her safely tucked into his side and not flung across the room. Small victories and all that.

He wasn’t the only zombie in his morning classes; everyone looked beat to shit with bags under their eyes and exactly zero brainpower to answer any questions their teachers asked. Baby was still the best, hands down. She really was a perfect angel…as long as you were holding her. Which had seemed like a fair trade on day one but it was inconvenient and uncomfortable in the long haul. Nick had fastened her to his chest with his sweatshirt and it had worked so well that, far from making fun of him, a couple of other boys had tried the same. Of course, their dolls weren’t as well-behaved as Baby no matter what.

“Where were you?” Seiji asked, catching up to Nick as he shuffled into their last class of the day.

“What?”

“You disappeared during lunch.”

“Oh, yeah,” Nick yawned. “I took a quick nap in the library in one of those big chairs.”

“You didn’t come to Mr. Briggs’ class,” Seiji accused. “I waited. You never showed.” He said it like he was actually upset at Nick’s failure to show for an appointment they hadn’t technically made. Nick shrugged, patting Baby’s back absently as he readjusted his improvised sling so he could sit down.

“Sorry,” he said but it was obvious he wasn’t. “I figured you were right, that’s all.”

“What’re you talking about now?”

“You’ve got nothing to prove,” Nick shrugged, trying to roll with that punch instead of letting it show how much it had hurt. “I bet you’ve got the perfect dad and all that but you’re right, I don’t want to be like mine. So whatever. I’ll just take care of her, it’s not like you want to.”

Seiji frowned. “Nobody actually wants to take care of the dolls.”

“I don’t know, Bobby likes watching her.”

“Bobby doesn’t count.”

“I think Dante likes her too but I can’t tell with him.”

“Fine, _you_ don’t actually care about playing house with a doll.”

“No,” Nick agreed, “I don’t. I’d like Baby a lot more if she were less like an actual baby,” then he felt bad and petted Baby’s head in apology. Seiji clearly thought Nick had gone mad. “What?” Nick snapped. “Everyone got attached to their dolls, it’s not just me.” Eugene had spent ten minutes after practice last night showing them pictures of his baby—Flamethrower Destructo-Bot or whatever—posed in unlikely places all around the school. Aiden had admitted to trying to steal his and Harvard’s doll. And Bobby had, by all accounts, bawled when returning Rosie. “Besides, I don’t want to be a shitty dad, even if it is pretend. So maybe I _do_ care about playing house with the doll. But I guess you wouldn’t understand any of that.”

The bell rang, cutting off Seiji’s response. He didn’t look pleased all through class and kept shooting Baby suspicious glances. Those glances shifted to Nick as the day went on and Baby was no longer there to glare at. All through practice, Seiji watched Nick in a strange way. Like he couldn’t figure something out.

“I’ll take it,” Seiji said when Bobby opened his door to return Baby to them. He and Nick both stared at Seiji, who only held out a hand importantly and said, “Give it to me.”

“Her,” Nick corrected, just to piss him off. Bobby passed Baby into Seiji’s insistent hands with wide eyes. Nick could imagine what kind of twisted impression of Seiji Bobby was getting from this. He’d think it was a sign of tenderness and vulnerability that Seiji wanted to hold the baby. Nick knew better. This was just to prove a point. A different point than Nick wanted to prove through Baby. Seiji wanted to show Nick that he didn’t appreciate being told what to do, even if it was exactly what he’d wanted to do in the start.

Nick smirked at the expression Seiji wore as he held the doll. Not even Bobby could twist that into something sweet.

“Do you know how expensive just one of these dolls is?” Seiji asked contemptuously, still holding Baby like she was saturated in vomit.

“Nope and I don’t wanna,” Nick held the door for Seiji and the baby, then tossed his shit into the room and stretched. It was nice not holding anything for a minute. “But it seems as good of a way for this place to spend their oodles of money as anything else.”

“My point is—,”

“I get your point. It’s taking resources from the school, time away from our other classes, blah blah blah. I hear you. I just don’t really care. It’s extra as hell, sure, but that’s rich people, for you. And honestly? The comprehensive sex education? The healthy relationship classes? The parenting classes? I don’t think they’re that bad of a thing. I know a couple people that could’ve benefited from them.” Nick recognized the look in Seiji’s eye. He was debating whether or not to say whatever mean shit had come to his mind. And Nick was sure he knew what it was. He _almost_ appreciated Seiji for hesitating before saying it. “No, dickface, I don’t mean my dad.” Not even all these resources had helped _him_ be a good father. Or, if they had, Nick wasn’t the one they were benefiting.

“I didn’t say anything.”

“You were going to.”

“I was not—great, look, you made it cry.”

“You need to hold her closer,” Nick said, laughing a little when Seiji awkwardly brought Baby to his chest. “Dude, why’re you so afraid of her?”

“I’m not afraid of her,” Seiji fumed, disappearing behind the ducky curtain in a huff. Whatever. If Seiji was actually going to help out on this project it just meant an easier week for Nick. Probably.

* * *

Nick sat up in bed more slowly than he had the previous nights. Each one just got progressively harder as the sleep-loss set in on him. But tonight, Baby’s howls weren’t the only sounds. There was the soft creaking of floor and rustling of fabric and Nick was more willing to believe that Baby had come alive and was crawling around on the floor than the other option.

“I’ve got it,” Seiji said, “go back to bed.”

“You’re shitting me,” Nick said, disbelieving. But, as his eyes focused, he saw that Seiji already had Baby. “I’ll be damned. Thanks.”

“You don’t have to say it like that,” Seiji snapped. He didn’t seem particularly pleased to be awake with a baby doll cradled in his arms but who could blame him?

“What? I was just saying thanks for taking baby duty tonight.”

“I still think this assignment is ludicrous and I don’t condone it for a multitude of reasons. But, as pointless and demeaning as I find this, we _are_ partners and I’m meant to help.” Nick could hear how bad those words had tasted on Seiji’s tongue. He’d have said thanks again but knew Seiji would take it as patronizing. So he kept his mouth shut and watched Seiji for a time.

_If Bobby could only see this_, Nick thought with amusement. The baby in his arms definitely softened Seiji. Especially in the shadowed darkness, when Seiji’s expression wasn’t discernible and the doll could almost be mistaken for the real deal. _Yeah, Bobby’d go batshit over this. _

“Why won’t she stop crying?” Seiji asked after increasingly exasperated pacing. _Oops._ Nick hadn’t meant to just sit there like an idiot instead of helping. He’d just…gotten distracted.

“Did you change her yet?” Nick asked. Seiji froze at once.

“I forgot.”

“That’s okay,” Nick tried not to laugh. “Just do it now. Or I can if you’d like.”

“No, I can. I just forgot.” Seiji, Nick knew, got up insanely early in the morning and didn’t seem to suffer from it. But the few hours of sleep he did get? Apparently, he needed those badly if he had any hopes of functioning. He actually seemed a little flustered as he went about unstrapping Baby’s diaper and replacing it to reset the changing sensor.

“Try giving her the bottle too,” Nick suggested, already rummaging in the diaper bag for it. He handed it off to Seiji before looking back through the bag for anything else that might be helpful. “We could try swaddling her but I don’t think she can actually tell the difference.” They’d had to practice swaddling during class anyway and had a blanket in case they wanted to bother doing it themselves. “And you can switch the bottle out for a bink after a bit.”

Seiji nodded, continuing his pacing. He’d gotten that right, at least. Baby liked pacing. Nick settled back in bed. He felt weird doing so but there was nothing more for him to do. He heard Seiji attempt to set Baby down only for her to cry. When it happened for a third time, Seiji actually cursed.

“She doesn’t like me,” Seiji said, at the end of his rope. “Maybe you should take it after all.”

“She likes you fine,” Nick dismissed. He could have pointed out that Baby was a doll and had no feelings or preferences in people but he thought it was funny that Seiji was accidentally treating her like a real baby in this small way. “She won’t go down for me either. But, here,” Nick climbed out of bed, “I can try.”

Seiji handed him the baby with a certain amount of sulk. Nick should have guessed that Seiji would be offended he wasn’t able to do this perfectly. It wasn’t his fault, though. The dolls were all programmed specifically to be hard to deal with perfectly. Nick was impressed that Seiji didn’t flee to bed now that he had taken Baby.

“It’s rather heavy, isn’t it?” Seiji asked and Nick nodded in agreement. “And it requires such an awkward and sustained hold. It’s not a productive…never mind, obviously the toy baby isn’t conducive to my workout regime. I just don’t see why they had to make it that heavy if we’re meant to carry it around all day.”

“Trust me, real babies are much worse.”

“And you know anything about real babies how, exactly?”

“I’ve got a friend back home who had a baby last year, she brought him everywhere. She let me hold him sometimes when we hung out.” Nick could read the shock on Seiji’s face, even in the dim light. He hid it quickly.

“It’s not…” Seiji started but trailed off. When it clicked in Nick’s brain what he was asking he felt the anger rush into him.

“You really think I’m awful, don’t you?” Nick asked, trying to keep his voice low but not succeeding terribly well. “You think I’d be here if I had a _kid?_ You think I’d abandon him with his mom and just fuck off to go do what I want?”

“No, I—it’s just that you’re so good at this, I thought—,” Seiji was properly abashed, possibly for the first time in his life. “But you’ll notice that I thought better of it. Obviously, I know better than to think that—I’m just tired and didn’t think before speaking.” Seiji looked so uncharacteristically upset about it that Nick took pity on him pretty quickly.

“You’re interesting when you’re tired,” Nick observed. He was sure he’d never have gotten something so close to an apology from Seiji if he were caught up on sleep. Though, as Seiji had said, he wouldn’t have needed to almost apologize in the first place had he not been so tired. “I like it,” Nick decided. “You seem more human.”

“Am I not sufficiently human when I’m properly rested?”

Nick had to snort at that. “Seiji, dude, I don’t mean to ruin your image of yourself but no. Definitely not. You’re like a little fencing robot that turns evil if you press the right button. But other than that button? Completely fucking emotionless.”

“Just because I don’t wear my emotions on my sleeve doesn’t mean I don’t have them,” Seiji said, an edge to his voice. “It doesn’t make me _less_ human than you.” He’d given something away, something he almost certainly hadn’t meant to but it was too late to go back and think a little more before speaking. So his response instead was to turn for his bed at last.

“Yeah, you’re right,” Nick said to Seiji’s back. “I was making a joke but it wasn’t funny. You’re—yeah, you’re plenty human all the time.”

Seiji didn’t respond but nor did he seem quite as tense when he returned to his bed. It occurred to Nick that he wasn’t the only one with baggage.


	5. Chapter 5

It was the final day of child-rearing classes and everyone seemed to be in a good mood because of it. Nick really wasn’t the only one to have gotten attached to his doll—the number of boys holding their babies upside-down or tossing them around was significantly lower than it had been at the start of the week. A couple of guys were cooing at their dolls unashamedly. Others, like Tim, were less generous with theirs but overall, Nick thought his class had taken to this better than he’d have expected a bunch of teenage boys to.

“An important part of a healthy relationship,” the lecture today started, “is communication. Communication is vital in all aspects of family; you must build a two-way relationship of trust and respect with your co-parent and your child. So today we will be practicing how to enter a healthy dialogue.”

Nick leaned over to whisper in Seiji’s ear. “She better not be about to ask us to role-play as father and son now. That would just bring the daddy issues to a whole new level since we’ve been role-playing the married life all week.” Seiji only swatted him away with an annoyed glance.

They were not assigned any specific roles to play, in the end, and were set to the task at hand to practice communication skills in general. Nick got the idea that it was supposed to be a fun last day. And the activities did sound a little fun, if he was being completely honest. The trouble was, not much was fun with Seiji as your partner.

The three minutes of silent eye-contact they started the day off with would have been awkward with anyone but with Seiji it was painful. He kept feeling like they were having a staring contest and he was losing; Seiji didn’t seem to need to blink as much as normal people. Of course he didn’t. His eyeballs were apparently perfectly moist without the extra help. Nick made a face. _Moist eyeballs. Bleh._ Seiji’s eyebrows ticked down in irritation. Were they ever _not_ low in irritation? Anyway, Nick wasn’t supposed to be looking at eyebrows. He was meant to be looking at eyes. Eyes that were dark and deep and full of what Nick could only assume was impatience and contempt for this program. But as the seconds progressed, they seemed to soften. Just a little. And Nick found it easier to focus on them. Maybe if he looked harder, he’d be able to see more emotions in them, not just the ones he expected to see. He leaned forward, trying to get a closer look—

The alarm rang and the room erupted into awkward chattering and laughing. Nick joined in and quickly leaned back in his chair.

“If you want to complain about how that was bullshit and a waste of time, I won’t even argue,” Nick told Seiji.

“Your eyes look different in the light,” Seiji said instead of complaining. Nick stared at him, waiting for some sort of insult to follow but none came. That was all Seiji had to say. Nick was saved from having to come up with a response by the announcement of the next exercise.

There were lots of activities and lots of uncomfortable laughter resulting from all of them. Like when they’d each had to take a turn trying to keep a conversation going when the other person responded only in simple sentences to shut it down. Nick thought Seiji would have had an unfair advantage there since that’s just what talking to Seiji was like. But at the end of the five minutes, he’d actually managed to pry more words from Seiji than he’d ever managed without the incentive of the task. And he was terrible at not talking back, despite Seiji’s minimal prompting during his turn.

Then there was the one meant to build listening skills where Nick could only listen while Seiji was forced to talk for three minutes on the randomly assigned topic—Disney movies—and then had to summarize everything Seiji had said after. He’d learned that Seiji’s favorite was _Beauty and the Beast_ and that he hadn’t watched any Disney movies since he was a kid. Then the roles had switched and Nick had had to come up with three minutes worth of stuff to say about goats. He referenced a meme Seiji didn’t understand but, nevertheless, repeated back in summary. Seiji saying _I crave that mineral _with a straight face had cracked Nick up so bad he’d woken Baby up and missed the rest of Seiji’s summary.

“Alright,” Ms. Rein, the specialist for today, called attention back to her with a booming voice. “For this next one we’re going to dig deep—,” groans resounded through the entire student body. “But then we’ll do something fun to finish up. You will each tell your partner three things about yourself. The first level is easy: you must tell your partner something about yourself that they do not know. After you’ve both done that, you’ll share again but this time it must be something no one in the school knows. And the third thing you’ll share about yourself is something no one knows. You’ll find that you get to know someone a lot this way and it’s a great way to open dialogues. This same concept can be used and adapted in a variety of ways…”

Nick tuned her out, already trying to come up with sufficient bullshit to tell Seiji. He eyed the figure sitting across from him, head turned to watch Ms. Rein like he actually cared what she had to say—Nick knew he didn’t, he was just too proper to let it show. How seriously would Seiji take this? Would he expect sincere attempts from Nick or would that only aggravate him?

“You start,” Seiji commanded as soon as they were released to do their thing.

“Um. Okay. Right. Something you don’t know about me.” There had to be a billion things Seiji didn’t know about him but he couldn’t think of anything to say, even with his headstart during the lecture. For some reason, all that came to his mind was their conversation last night. “My friend, the one with the baby, her name’s Theresa. She lives on my street and I had a massive crush on her when I was ten and she was twelve.” _Why did I say that?_ Just her name probably would have counted, and that they’d grown up together. But he’d gone and blurted about his stupid crush because it had been important to him as a kid. She’d been the first person he’d ever really liked and she’d been nice about pretending he wasn’t as obvious about it as he had been.

Seiji was as taken aback by Nick’s choice in pseudo-secrets as he was. But, after a pause and a cock of the head, he asked, “Do you still like her?”

“One thing per level,” Nick said with a wink.

“Then you’ll tell me that next,” Seiji said, no-nonsense. “I suppose that makes it my turn. I hate—,” he cut off, narrowing his eyes at Nick.

“What? You haven’t even told me anything, what’re you glaring for?”

“It just occurred to me that you might use that fact to annoy me so I’m trying to think of something else.”

“Wait, no, now you gotta tell me. I’ll be good, I pinky promise,” and Nick held out his pinky. Seiji didn’t take it. “C’mon, what do you hate?”

“When people shorten my name. Seij. It sounds like the plant and not at all like me. I hate it. Even more so when people just assume they may modify my name however they please and without permission.” Nick laughed at how genuinely disgruntled with it Seiji was.

“I don’t know,” he said, “I think it’s kind of cute. But I won’t call you that,” Nick was quick to add at Seiji’s redoubled glare. “Hey, is that why you always call me Nicholas?”

“That’s how you introduced yourself. Unless you prefer Nick?”

“Not really. Either’s fine by me.” It was just that, in a way, Seiji had extended Nick a curtesy in calling him by his full name. And it was an interesting insight into Seiji’s mind, knowing that.

“Then it’s your turn again, Nicholas.”

“Oh, right. Theresa. I don’t like her anymore. Hanging on to a crush for over five years would be pretty pathetic.” Seiji looked as though he thought Nick was capable of being that pathetic. “Anyway, I don’t see why you care.”

“I wondered if that might be the reason for your insistence on being a good father.”

“Man, if you feel bad about accusing me of having daddy issues—very loudly in the hall where everyone and _their_ fathers heard, might I add—then just apologize for it instead of trying to come up with alternate reasons why I care so much. I already said you were right. I just want to be better to this plastic baby than my dad ever was to me and I guess that’s a little fucked up but there you have it.” Nick was grateful for the noise in the room. He didn’t need his whole grade hearing that. Hell, he didn’t need Seiji hearing that but he’d said it anyway.

“I’m sorry,” Seiji said simply. Nick wasn’t sure if he meant to say sorry for his rude assessment of Nick’s personal issues or for the fact that Nick didn’t have a dad that had liked him even as much as Nick liked their fake baby.

“Thanks,” he said, accepting the apology for whatever it was. Then, when Seiji stayed quiet, “Is that the thing no one in school knows? That you’re sorry?”

“I’m sure there are several people who would like me to be more apologetic but no. Something they don’t know…” he paused in thought. “I tried to quit fencing, once.”

“_What?_” Nick burst, sure Seiji was fucking with him. “No way,” he lowered his voice, noticing the curious glances of his classmates. He bet they’d all love to know something juicy on Seiji and Nick’s reaction had proven that he’d gotten just that. Seiji nodded but waited for attention on them to dwindle before explaining.

“Back when I started pulling ahead of my peers and gaining some amount of renown for my skill. Around seven, I think.” Sometimes Nick forgot just how different his and Seiji’s worlds had been. To be gaining a buzz at the age of seven for fencing? That was crazy impressive.

“Why did you want to quit?” Nick asked, half expecting to be shut down.

“I was unaccustomed to the attention and handled it poorly. Specifically, the negative attention.”

“No shit, you were seven,” Nick said then shut up so Seiji would keep talking.

“I had a breakdown,” he spoke the word _breakdown _with such hate, it was obvious how resentful he was of his seven-year-old self for having it. “I told my father I wanted to be normal. It was a huge ordeal, screaming, crying, recitations of all the mean things I’d been told—you get the picture.”

“But you love fencing,” Nick protested. He knew that for sure. Seiji poured all of himself into the blade, you couldn’t fence like he did if you didn’t love it.

“I know. Which is why I came to my senses and stopped caring about all the people in the background saying I didn’t deserve it and the like.” There was a tiny little smirk hidden in the corners of his lips and the angle of his eyebrows. Nick knew exactly what he was thinking.

“_I’m_ not just someone in the background,” he said. “I really will beat you and I’m not just saying that because I think you’re arrogant and need to be taken down a notch—well, not only because of that.” Seiji shrugged, as unconcerned with Nick’s threats as always. Nick wasn’t in the mood to get mad about it today. Not after hearing that Seiji had tried to give up the thing he loved most because he wanted people to leave him alone. So, weirdly, he found himself saying, “I’m glad you didn’t quit.”

“Me too,” Seiji said, a little unsure. Not, Nick was certain, of his own gladness that he’d continued fencing. He was unsure of Nick’s motives for saying he was glad of it. Nick couldn’t blame him.

“I’ve never met my dad,” Nick said quietly, feeling like he owed Seiji something more meaningful than the names of past crushes. “Obviously, it’s not like no one else knows that. Mom does. My dad might. I’m actually…I don’t know if he knows about me at all. The thing no one knows is that I want to meet him. I _know_ it’s pointless. I know it would complicate everything and he wouldn’t want me because he’s already got everything. But even more than that I want to be better than him, I want him to be better himself. And I fucking hate that I want it. I’ve never told anyone that.” Nor had he told anyone about his secret ambition to get closer to Robert through fencing. Even just to have his father look at him and see a worthy fencer in him…that would be enough. But he couldn’t tell Seiji _that_.

“I—,”

“Can I get everyone’s eyes back on me please,” Ms. Rein cut Seiji, and a good deal of other students, off abruptly. “We’re going to have to move on for the sake of time. But do you all see what a great springboard for conversation this exercise is? Very good, let’s get on to our last activity. It’s an obstacle course!”

“If at least one of us isn’t blindfolded, I’ll eat Baby’s hat,” Nick told Seiji in a low whisper

“Why would we both be blindfolded?”

“Double the fun?”

It turned out that only one person was required to wear the blindfold and the other would be in charge of directing them through an obstacle course that was just a bunch of scattered chairs. Nick wasn’t sure it was a particularly productive exercise in teamwork _or_ communication. The main thing he learned was that he didn’t know his directions. He accidentally steered Seiji into so many chairs and other people that Seiji started to just feel in front of him with his hands, moving at a snail’s pace. And when it was his turn to don the blindfold, he kept going the wrong way, prompting Seiji to, very irately, call _your _other _left _over and over again_. _

“I’ll see you at lunch,” Nick said when they were dismissed from their last parenting class.

Seiji was still in a bad mood over Nick’s abysmal direction giving because all he said in return was a terse, “I’m going to have bruises on my shins now.”

Nick laughed as he watched Seiji haughtily collect his things and leave. Nick had run into just as much stuff but he only had himself to blame. Directions were way harder than you’d think. Other than the obstacle course, Nick thought he and Seiji had done pretty well, honestly.

And something strange occurred to Nick when he arrived in class. He and Seiji had been practicing ‘open, honest communication’ and Seiji hadn’t tried even once to use it to his advantage. Seiji hadn’t asked him a single thing relating to Jesse. It was a peculiar sort of satisfaction that filled him at the realization that Seiji had asked about him. Had wanted to know about _him._

* * *

“Do you want me to hold the baby this time?” Seiji asked when Nick arrived in Ms. Kingsley’s class just as the late bell rang.

“No,” Nick said, out of breath from his mad dash here—he’d left Baby’s bag in his first-period class and had had to go and grab it. Seiji looked stung. It was only for a moment but Nick was sure he’d seen it. “She’s my good-luck charm,” he tried to explain to Seiji without getting into the way the pacing helped him read and how Baby made that more acceptable and, while they still had her, why not use her?

“If you don’t think I’m capable of looking after a fake baby, you can just say as much. There’s no need to make things up.”

“Why do you even care if I think you can handle her?” Nick asked, sidetracked completely from the point. In response, Seiji opened his preferred extra-large hard copy of _Romeo and Juliet_, letting it fall open heavily enough to disrupt the desk. Class was starting up now anyway so Nick grabbed his chosen copy of the play—a beat-up and heavily highlighted paperback that he’d found at the bottom of the box—and strode to the back of the classroom with Baby on his hip. He didn’t get why Seiji was being so weird.

Ms. Kingsley made them backtrack a few lines so Nick had to read about lips doing what hands do again. But that wasn’t so bad, it was the balcony scene Nick had been dreading since being assigned this role. With Baby’s help, he managed to make it through the entire ‘But soft, what light through yonder window breaks’ speech with minimal stumbling.

Seiji stuttered, though, for the first time the entire play only a couple pages later on. “Thou knowest the mask of night is on my face, / Else would a maiden blush bepaint my cheek / For that which thou hast—,” it was here that Seiji faltered but he covered it by clearing his throat and restarting the line. “For that which thou hast heard me speak tonight.”

Without the mask of night to save him, Nick saw something of that ‘maiden blush’ bepainting _Seiji’s_ cheeks. Or his ears, since Nick couldn’t exactly see his cheeks from his spot in the back of the class. Nick didn’t think there was any reason for Seiji to be embarrassed; everyone else in the class had fucked up multiple lines by this point and they’d all been way less smooth about it than Seiji. It was lucky for Seiji, really, that everyone was reading along in their books rather than watching him or else they’d easily see his—

“Nicholas, it’s your line,” Kingsley said. _Shit._ Nick had been the only one in the class to peek up from his script and he’d gotten distracted by pink ears and forgotten to follow along for his cue.

“Sorry,” he mumbled before quickly starting up the dialogue again. He didn’t miss another cue but only because he was more careful to check the book frequently when his eyes wandered over to Seiji. He didn’t know why they kept doing that, usually this only happened when Seiji fenced.


	6. Chapter 6

“Where are you going?” Seiji asked. Nick froze, feeling like he’d been caught trying to sneak out, which was absurd. It was Saturday afternoon and they’d finished practice already so there was no reason he shouldn’t be going out.

“Just to hang with friends.”

“And you’re taking the doll?” Seiji wondered, dubious.

“Uh. Yeah?”

“Is she your good luck charm for making friends too?”

“Why are you being crabby? Do you _want_ to look after her all day?”

“No,” Seiji admitted.

“Then I’ve got her. See you tonight.” Nick left the room, finding Bobby already in the hallway looking for him.

“Nick,” he said, frowning the moment he saw Baby, though Nick couldn’t think why. Bobby had to have known Baby would be coming. And since when did Bobby have an issue with Baby tagging along? “You can’t carry babies like that.”

“What?” Nick looked down at himself. He had Baby tied to him in his jacket-sling.

“It’s cutting into her neck too much, it would bruise and inhibit breathing. Here, let me.”

“Oh, thanks,” Nick said, holding his arms out to the side awkwardly as Bobby retied his contraption.

“There, that’s better.”

“Right. Can we go now?”

Bobby nodded enthusiastically, grabbed onto Nick’s arm, and dragged him off.

* * *

Nick and Bobby returned to the dorms late, just before curfew. Nick said goodbye to Bobby and was surprised to find light spilling out from under his and Seiji’s door.

“Hey,” he said, walking in and carefully untying Baby from his chest.

“Are you alright?” Seiji asked, which surprised Nick so much he might have done some actual and honest to god gaping. “You look exhausted,” Seiji explained, defensive.

“It was a long day.”

“Did Baby misbehave terribly?”

“No, Baby was—ugh. Baby was fine it’s just that Bobby—shit, never mind.” Why was he talking to Seiji? Why was Seiji talking to him?

“What about Bobby?” Seiji asked quizzically. “You always return from Bobby in a good mood. Did you have a fight?” It struck Nick as strange that Seiji would notice that and stranger still that he’d care if Nick and Bobby had fought.

“No,” he said, sighing and running a hand through his hair. “We didn’t fight. But the entire day he was telling me what to do with Baby and what _not_ to do. I offered her a piece of popcorn as a joke and Bobby went off about choking hazards and shit.”

“Backseat parenting?” Seiji asked, amused.

“Yes. God. Over _every _little thing and I just—How am I supposed to know how to be a good dad when I’ve never had one?” The thought exploded from him without permission and he watched as Seiji’s face shed the tiny smiled he’d had on.

“Stop being dramatic, you’re not actually a dad. This isn't a real baby.”

But one day, it would be. Not this baby in particular but…_A_ baby. Nick thought he wanted kids. Probably. Maybe. But what if he was as bad as Robert? What if something in him was broken and couldn't be fixed and he'd be terrible at it?

“Though I imagine it was tiresome listening to Bobby lecture you on what your fake baby can choke on,” Seiji added. “Besides, having a dad wouldn’t have made you any more aware of the specifics of infant care. Perhaps having a significantly younger sibling would have prepared you better but even then, Baby isn’t real. You can’t be a bad dad to her and—don’t interrupt me—_and_ if you want kids I don’t think you’re at a disadvantage just because you don’t know your dad.”

“But what if I’m like him and I just don’t know it yet?” Nick asked. Seiji shook his head sharply.

“No,”his eyes flashed, intense and fierce. “Whoever your father is—,”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Nick couldn’t help but say.

“Not really, why would I care? And what did I say about interrupting me?”

“Not to do it?” Nick offered when Seiji paused for an answer.

“Exactly. As I was saying, whoever your father is, you’re _not_ him. We’re not destined to make our parents’ mistakes—,” Seiji stopped abruptly. There was a moment of absolute stillness and then Seiji sat heavily on his bed. Tentatively, Nick edged into Seiji’s side of the room. When he wasn’t stopped, he went ahead and dove all in, sitting down on the bed, too, and settling Baby on his lap.

“I know what mistakes I don’t want to make,” Nick said. “Do you want to tell which ones you’re afraid of making?”

“We didn’t get the chance to finish that ridiculous exercise yesterday,” Seiji said, throwing Nick for a loop.

“I guess not,” he said slowly, watching Seiji.

“So I’ll tell you now. I know for a fact that I’m a lot like my father, a lot of people know it. Just looking at us, it’s clear how much like him I am. And I hate it. When I wanted to stop fencing, he was furious at me. Men don’t cry_,_ he said. Neither do they quit just because of some _words._ He’d raised me better than that. _No son of mine backs down from a challenge like a coward. _He’s not a fan of vulnerability or emotion, my father. He wouldn’t let me leave his office until I’d stopped crying and agreed to act like a proper Katayama.” Seiji smiled ruefully. “I was seven. I wanted his approval. So I did as he’d asked. I continued fencing—for that, I’m grateful. But that was the last time I ever tried really talking to him. A proper Katayama. That’s what I am and I’m not sure it’s a good thing. I don’t want to be like him. But I can’t discard that part of myself either.”

“It doesn’t make you a bad person to keep your emotions close to your heart,” _or,_ Nick thought guiltily, _less of a person. _“But I think it’d be good for you to open up a little. Even just…even just having one person you can be vulnerable and emotional with.” The words sounded loaded and his heart was pounding a little too hard. He swallowed. “I think that’d be good.”

“_That’s_ why I know you’d be a good dad,” Seiji said, meeting Nick’s eyes. “You’re good at this. At making connections with people. I don’t know how to do that. You don’t even trust me to take care of a toy baby.”

“What—that’s not—,” Nick stared at Seiji, completely confused. “That’s not true.”

“You never want me to hold her—it.”

“You don’t want to, you hate this assignment. I was trying to be nice,” Nick explained, trying really hard not to let it show how endearing he found it that Seiji was, apparently, upset Nick hadn’t given him a chance to hang out with their fake baby. “Here,” he said, placing Baby in Seiji’s arms. “See? I know you can handle her. And I know you’d be a good dad if you ever wanted to be one for real.” Seiji looked unconvinced but Nick had meant it.

“You hardly know me.”

“I know you well enough,” Nick said, finding Seiji’s eyes with his. Then he realized he was too close, still leaned in from handing Seiji the doll. He pulled back. “Hey, I just realized. I’m not the only one with daddy issues.”

“Half the kids at this school have a father complex,” Seiji said, dismissive.

“I think we bonded. We had a real heart-to-heart.”

“Shut up. And get off my bed.”

Nick cackled but stood. “Thanks,” he said, “for the talk.” Seiji nodded in response, which was all Nick had really expected. “Should I turn off the light?” He asked. Seiji was already in pajamas and Nick could get changed by the light of his lamp.

“Yes please,” Seiji said, adjusting to get under his blankets. It looked like Baby would be spending the night in Seiji’s bed—a perfect solution, really. Seiji didn’t toss and turn and his warmth would placate her.

“Sleep tight, Baby,” he said, hand on the light switch.

“You too.”

They both froze, staring at each other in horror.

“Did you just—?”

“No.”

“Right,” Nick laughed awkwardly. “Goodnight then.”

“Goodnight,” Seiji returned tightly, a flush taking his cheeks.

Nick flipped off the lights and shuffled to his bed, hyperaware of Seiji all of the sudden, tucked into bed on the other side of this curtain. Nick felt a giddy smile overtake him as he finally crawled into his bed. He wanted to laugh into his pillow. He wanted to discuss this with Bobby. He wanted to call Seiji a dumb name—not Seij, never that—and have him respond to it without a second thought.


	7. Chapter 7

Nick hadn’t seen Seiji all day. Free from team obligations since it was a Sunday, Nick had taken the opportunity to sleep in. The room had already been empty when he’d woken up, both Seiji and Baby nowhere to be seen. It was funny to imagine Seiji going about his day with the baby. Had he gone fencing that morning? What had he done with Baby if he had?

Nick had half a mind to track Seiji down but he didn’t want Seiji to think he was checking in on him. It wasn’t at all that Nick didn’t think Seiji could handle Baby. It was just that he couldn’t help wanting to offer a hand anyway. And, possibly more than that and definitely more selfishly than it, he wanted to talk with Seiji. Maybe spend the day hanging out, looking after Baby together.

But when it became clear that Seiji wouldn’t be dropping back into their room any time soon and no hanging out would happen between them, Nick decided to grab some other friends and go out.

“Last day with your baby,” Eugene said over lunch. “What did you think of parenthood?”

“I’m tired and my arms hurt.” He got some appreciative laughter for that. “But I’m going to miss Baby .”

“I still can’t believe you named her Baby,” Bobby said. “How uninspired.”

“Seiji wouldn’t let me name her anything else!” Nick argued. He thought Bobby’s judgment was unfair.

“Saying he _let_ you name her at all is a bit of an overstatement,” Eugene commented, stealing one of Nick’s fries. “I saw the face he made every time anyone called her that.”

“True. But he’s taken to calling her Baby too. Might be an accident but it’s actually really cute.” This time Nick was met with open stares and stunned silence.

“Dude,” said Eugene with no small amount of disbelief, “did you just say that Seiji, our perfectly sullen and cranky _Seiji,_ is _cute?”_

“Yeah. Got a problem with that?”

“No,” Eugene whistled low. “But Seiji might.”

“Probably,” Nick admitted. He refused to feel abashed despite Eugene and Bobby’s stares.

“It’s the baby, it makes him even more irresistible.” Nick shouldn’t have said anything, he could see that he’d encouraged Bobby’s daydreams and everyone knew Bobby didn’t need any more reason to adore Seiji. “Is he sweet with her?”

“He doesn’t look at her like he wishes she’d catch on fire anymore,” and that was all that could be said. No, that wasn’t true. Seiji was strange about Baby but he might be sweet with her, in a way. By Seiji’s standards. But Nick wasn’t going to tell Bobby that.

“I’ll believe it when I see it,” Eugene snorted. Bobby smacked his arm, upset at the insult to Seiji’s good name. Bobby really liked Seiji. Nick frowned a little as the two went on to argue about Seiji’s alleged _dreaminess_.Nick stayed out of it.

They spent the rest of the day chilling in the mall and at a little park nearby it until Eugene got pulled away by some of his other friends, leaving Nick and Bobby to meander back to Kings Row without him.

“So,” Nick said, too obvious to come off as casual.

“Yeah?” Bobby asked, linking arms with Nick as they walked.

“You really like Seiji.”

“Obviously,” Bobby said with a roll of his eyes. “Seiji’s so cool.”

“Yeah but…do you _really_ like him?”

“I don’t know why you can’t see it but Seiji’s amazing; _yes_ I really—oh! You mean do I _like_ like him,” Bobby realized, peering up at Nick thoughtfully.

“Yeah, I guess.” Nick tried not to sound like he cared too much but he _had_ asked. Obviously, he wanted to know the answer and no amount of feigned nonchalance could hide that.

“No,” Bobby said and the inkling of dread that had been curled in Nick’s stomach since lunch dissipated with a sigh of relief. “I’m interested in someone else. Seiji’s just like, you know, my celebrity crush. But he’s all yours. I’ve already got…”

“Dante?” Nick guessed. Bobby turned furiously red.

“Is it that obvious?”

“A little,” Nick laughed, bumping his shoulder into Bobby’s. The thing about Bobby was that he wasn’t _ever_ subtle with his affection. But he gave it out so freely and obviously that it made it all the harder to tell who he was honestly _interested_ in.

When they reached their hallway, Bobby slipped away from Nick but not before leaning in conspiratorially to whisper: “You’re telling me _everything_ tomorrow. You do realize that, don’t you?”

“I’ll make room in my busy schedule,” Nick assured him, though it remained to be seen if there would be anything worth telling.

Walking into the room, Nick was pleased to find Seiji already there. He looked up from the desk and gave a little nod of greeting.

“Good, you’re back. Could you watch Baby while I shower properly? I thought it a bad idea to expose her to steam, for obvious reasons—,”

“And didn’t want to run around the locker room in a towel to take care of her if she started crying?”

“I wouldn’t say it like that but, essentially, yes,” Seiji was already packing away his computer and pulling out pajamas.

“Where’ve you been all day?” Nick found himself asking before Seiji disappeared into the bathroom.

“Fencing with Dmytro and then studying in the library.”

“Why not study here?”

“I thought I’d be more productive today in the library. I did get a lot done but Mr. Rickett was not entirely pleased that I brought Baby. We had to go for a walk outside once. Baby and I. Mr. Rickett didn’t go on any walks.”

“So she didn’t give you too much trouble? Other than a walk in the middle of your homework?”

“There were a handful of occasions that resulted in very judgmental looks from everyone else but that’s to be expected. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’d really like to wash my hair.”

“Yeah, go ahead. Baby and I will just be here.” Nick winced at the stupid phrase he’d just spouted. Seiji didn’t even comment on it, correctly assuming Nick already knew it had been a pointless thing to say.

While Seiji showered, Nick changed for the night and decided to cycle through Baby’s needs, just to be sure. Seiji had already pretty much put her to bed by the time Nick had come in and found them, Seiji at the desk and Baby tucked up in her improvised crib on top of it. Nick rocked Baby a bit then returned her to it, holding his breath until he was sure she wasn’t going to throw a fit.

When Seiji emerged from his ‘proper’ shower, he made a direct line for the light switch. Nick tried to think of a reason to protest when Seiji asked, “Do you mind?” but he couldn’t come up with any reason he should so he let Seiji turn it off. It was their last day with Baby but she would still rob them of at least an extra hour of sleep tonight, compiling on top of all the other hours she’d already taken. Seiji wasted no time in going to bed because of this and Nick followed along. Tomorrow wouldn’t be fun and it would only get worse the later Nick stayed up. But Nick didn’t always make good decisions.

“Seiji?” He asked into the dark after ten minutes of rolling around.

“What?” As always, Seiji sounded annoyed to be called on after lights-off.

“I was just thinking…about last night and all,” Nick started.

“Don’t,” Seiji said. “We already had that conversation and I’m trying to sleep.”

“But—,”

“I’ll put on my headphones.”

“Fine, I’ll tell you later,” Nick huffed, rolling away from the duck curtain feeling peeved. He knew Seiji wasn’t great at this stuff—knew now that it was probably equal parts just who he was and how his father had raised him. But, even so, Nick felt offended that Seiji hadn’t been willing to listen.

* * *

It felt like Nick had just fallen asleep when he was woken up again. Baby was screaming and it was Nick’s turn to deal with it. He’d left her to Seiji last night, thinking that it would be weirder to go over to his bed and try to help than to just leave him to it.

“It’s alright, Baby, I’ve got you,” Nick shushed her quickly. She must’ve taken pity on them tonight—she quieted the moment Nick picked her up. He still changed and fed her, though. Best to cover all their bases. “Shh, shh, shh,” he continued softly, though she hadn’t done more than emit little hiccupy sounds that could either mean she was done crying or she was about to start in earnest. He dug around in her diaper bag. “There, have your bink,” he whispered. “We don’t want to wake Seiji up, do we?”

“It’s too late for that,” Seiji said from his corner of the room.

“Sorry, I thought I might have gotten her under control fast enough.”

“I’m not quite tired enough to sleep through her wailing.”

“Bummer. Okay, I’m gonna try putting her down. Brace yourself.” Nick hoped Baby would continue to have mercy as he set her down, as careful as he would have been with a motion-activated bomb. She stayed silent for a second, then another, and another, and maybe she really was—the room erupted in cries and Nick snatched her up again. “Looks like it’s gonna be a tough time getting her to stay asleep,” Nick sighed.

“Bring her here,” Seiji ordered. Nick did as he was told without thinking. Seiji was sitting up in bed, his blanket disrupted and his arms outstretched. “Well? Don’t just stare at me like a goldfish, give me the doll. She can stay with me again. It worked well enough last night.”

“You sure?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, thanks,” Nick said, handing over the baby at last. Seiji brought her against his chest with haste, lest she think they’d dared return her to the towels.

It was time for Nick to disengage. Say goodnight and get back to sleep. He didn’t do that at all. Instead, he sat cautiously on the edge of Seiji’s bed. Seiji eyed him skeptically. But he wasn’t getting yelled at or shoved off so he stayed.

“Yes?” Seiji asked.

“It’s my turn. In the sharing game, it’s my turn now.”

“Don’t talk nonsense. We each only get three turns,” Seiji told him. “What could the next level possibly be, anyway? What’s above sharing something no one else knows about?”

Nick leaned in close, classic posture for secret sharing. “Something I’m not even sure _I_ know,” he explained in a whisper, letting his eyes drop a little from Seiji’s uncomprehending eyes. It should have been harder to convince himself to do what he did next. He should have been more worried about getting slugged or neatly snipping the thread that wavered whisper-thin between them. But the wanting and the curiosity made it the easiest thing in the world to press his lips against Seiji’s.

As far as kisses went, it wasn’t spectacular. Nothing more than a chaste and fleeting connection. If hands did what lips did, it would have been nothing more than a friendly wave goodbye. Or, just maybe, a wave hello. Nick pulled away, leaned back out of Seiji’s space. 

“Do you know for sure now?” Seiji asked bluntly, betraying nothing of his own feelings in regards to Nick’s latest confession.

“Yeah.”

“And?”

“And I’ve learned a lot about you this week,” Nick said. “And the more I learn about you, the more I like you.” From reading voice to daddy issues, Nick was glad to know every detail he’d been allowed to see and every secret he’d been told.

“I didn’t mean to tell you so much,” Seiji responded automatically. Then a blush spread slowly across his face, a blush Nick felt his own cheeks mimicking.

“Will you tell me more?”

“Will you kiss me more?”

In answer, Nick did just that. The reaction he had to a simple kiss on par with the one he’d shared with Sally B. in the fourth grade was insane. Nick felt chills run up his arms and down his spine the moment their lips connected again. His hand found its own way to Seiji’s jaw and Seiji’s hand slid around the back of his head, scraping pleasantly against the short hair there. Nick’s back protested at the awkward angle but he didn’t mind it, allowing Seiji to pull him slightly closer. The kiss didn’t resemble his fourth-grade experience for long. Not with Seiji’s mouth sliding temptingly open and his following close behind. Nowif hands did what lips did or lips did what hands did…well, Nick didn’t really get Shakespeare but there were a lot of things he’d have liked to do just then with both his hands and his lips.

Seiji sat back abruptly. Confusion was Nick’s first reaction to the sudden break in contact. Then came the hurt and disappointment. That was much worse. He couldn’t think what to say to Seiji now.

“We can’t,” Seiji said, slightly panicked.

“Why not?” Nick asked. “I like you, I thought you—,”

“No, not that,” Seiji dismissed impatiently. “But I’m still holding—we can’t _kiss_ over a baby, Nicholas. Not even a fake one.”

Nick sat back too and saw that Seiji was right. Baby was still held to Seiji’s chest with one arm. He laughed, relieved and oddly charmed that Seiji was worrying about something like that.

“Is that all?” Nick asked.

“Yes.”

Despite what he’d just been told, Nick darted in for one last quick kiss. “Then we’ll continue tomorrow after returning our bundle of joy to the storks. Goodnight, baby.”

“You’d better be talking to the doll,” Seiji warned sharply. Nick grinned at him, then, with a wink, stood up. And that grin didn’t fade from his face until he’d long since fallen asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know some of you are judging me and a) that's fair but b) I don't generally like 'baby' as an endearment but it was just too funny to me idk what to tell you
> 
> Thanks for reading this silly little fic! I hope you had even half as much fun reading it as I did writing it 💜


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